The idea came to Hazel Adair when she submitted a commissioned feature article for ''
Woman's Own. Adair and Ling devised the long-running soap Crossroads while Compact'' was still running. In contrast to the
kitchen sink realism of
Coronation Street,
Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. The show took viewers into the office, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal storylines. The show was scheduled for broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding a clash with
ITV's
Coronation Street on Mondays and Wednesdays. Adair managed to persuade the BBC to retain an unmarried mother in the series (also a first), according to her granddaughter. In 1964 a regular omnibus edition was introduced, broadcast on Sundays.
Morris Barry, actor and BBC director – he directed three
Doctor Who stories in the 1960s – took over as producer and was given a brief to spice the series up in view of the criticism it had received from the national press. The BBC dropped the series in 1965. Adair believed the BBC was embarrassed by its high audience figures. Only four out of 373 televised episodes exist in the BBC archive. (See
Wiping.) ==Reception==